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Once the data is out of your hands, who has a right—besides you—to use it in the future? And how will it be used? By advertisers or law enforcement? Take, for example, the case of the Golden State Killer. This is a high-profile example of using DNA information housed at an open-source genealogical testing outfit to make an arrest. In this instance, authorities initially used DNA from a relative to eventually track down the alleged killer; authorities then gathered the alleged killer’s DNA and matched it to evidence found at the scenes of several crimes. While this DNA match was made through an open-source organization, law enforcement can subpoena the genetic information, as well.

So, when you have your DNA tested to find out about your ancestry, you’re likely not thinking how it may be used by third parties for research or advertising. With social media sites, we implicitly acknowledge that through the use of the platforms, the companies will use at least some of our data to serve us personalized ads. With DNA testing, however, I don’t believe that same tacit agreement or understanding is made with the companies providing the service.

Asymmetric cryptography and the blockchain could help secure user data and make it accessible only to the person providing the sample to the personal genetic testing companies.

There’s lots of talk about how the blockchain is used as part of the effort to mine cryptocurrency or to ensure the supply chain for food and other commodities stay safe.

Utilizing the distributed database foundation of the blockchain, and, specifically, a feature called asymmetric cryptography, may be one way of partially securing DNA data. So what is encryption? In this case, our encryption definition focuses on asymmetric cryptography, also known as public key cryptography, which has a fancy name, but is simple enough to understand. To use it, there must be two “keys,” one public and one private, both of which consist of long strings of numbers, letters and symbols. It’s a password.

Asymmetric cryptography is akin to the way your employer deposits a paycheck: you and your employer can deposit money; only you can see how much is in the account and take it out.

The DNA testing organization and the consumer each would share the public key, which only allows encrypted information to be added. The private key is one you alone hold; this key allows only the person who holds the code to decrypt and remove information.

Consumers who take advantage of genetic testing need security and safety in all aspects of their online data, especially when it comes to highly-sensitive personal information.

So rather than DNA testing firms storing genetic data on their servers, they and their customers would utilize blockchain’s distributed database to keep the information in hands of those who actually own it. (The operational aspects of the database would need to be worked out, of course.) From there, we could decide how much, if any, data we want to share with researchers, advertisers or anyone else.

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